Management of goals and recommendations

ABSTRACT

Methods, systems, and computer-readable media are disclosed for managing goals and recommendations. A particular method includes identifying one or more financial planning objectives for a financial planning client, receiving information relating to the one or more financial planning objectives, and creating a financial planning goal for the financial planning client based at least in part on an analysis of the information. One or more financial planning recommendations are associated with the financial planning goal, and data identifying the financial planning goal and the one or more financial planning recommendations is stored in a data store. The method also includes monitoring progress of the financial planning client with respect to the financial planning goal over at least a portion of a financial planning lifecycle.

BACKGROUND

To achieve personal and financial objectives, individuals often seek arelationship with a financial advisor. Financial advisors typicallyestablish one-to-one relationships with many financial planning clients,regularly consulting with each of the clients to help each clientachieve their stated objectives. Financial planners often use computersystems to assist with the financial planning process.

Current financial planning computing systems embed goals andrecommendations suggested by a financial planner and accepted by theclient in a computer system that the financial planner uses to createthe goals and recommendations. However, the embedded goals in aparticular computer system may limit the use of more than one analyticaltool (e.g. a software financial analysis program on a different computersystem), since different analytical tools often have different nativedata formats. Financial planners often use more than one computer systemor computer software program, and each system or program may require theuser to input goals and recommendations. In this scenario, a financialplanner may need to reconcile the results from using each of thedifferent systems in order to present a summary to their client. Inaddition, the outputs of the various computer systems may not be easilyreconcilable, due to data format differences. Furthermore, many toolscreate and analyze goals and recommendations based on certain events(e.g., a stock market downturn, an inheritance, or a compensationbonus). The association between the goals and recommendations andparticular events may restrict the use of the goals and recommendationsin other contexts.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure describes unified storage and management of goalsand recommendations (e.g., financial planning goals and financialplanning recommendations). The goals and recommendations may be managedby a data manager that provides the ability to create, modify, and usethe goals and recommendations with multiple applications at differenttimes and in various contexts. The data manager is compatible with avariety of systems and user applications and enables goals andrecommendations to be conveniently managed independent of any particularapplication, event, or date.

Unified management of goals and recommendations may be achieved via asystem that includes a data manager to store and retrieve goals andrecommendations to and from a database. The data manager may beaccessible from various applications (e.g., through the use ofinterfaces configured to communicate and translate between applicationsand the data manager).

Further details regarding particular embodiments are described inreference to the following figures:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram to illustrate a particular embodiment of asystem to manage goals and recommendations;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram to illustrate another particular embodiment ofa system to manage goals and recommendations;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram to illustrate another particular embodiment ofa system to manage goals and recommendations in connection withparticular illustrative applications;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram to illustrate another particular embodiment ofa distributed system to manage goals and recommendations in connectionwith various financial planning applications;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram to illustrate a particular embodiment of aclient record that may be stored in the database of FIG. 1, FIG. 2, orFIG. 3 or by the Goals and Recommendations Manager of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram to illustrate a particular embodiment of amethod of creating and managing goals and recommendations;

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of another particular embodiment of a method ofcreating and managing goals and recommendations;

FIG. 8 includes two screenshots of a particular embodiment of a clientview interface for a financial planner that displays goals andrecommendations;

FIG. 9 includes two additional screenshots of the particular embodimentof the client view interface of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 includes two screenshots of a goals and recommendations managerinterface that includes a hierarchical categorization of goals andrecommendations; and

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a computing environment including acomputing device operable to support embodiments of computer-implementedmethods, computer program products, and system components as illustratedin FIGS. 1-10.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In a particular embodiment, a financial planning method is disclosedthat includes identifying one or more financial planning objectives fora financial planning client. The method includes receiving informationrelating to the one or more financial planning objectives and creating afinancial planning goal for the financial planning client based at leastin part on an analysis of the received information related to the clientobjectives. The method further includes associating one or morefinancial planning recommendations with the financial planning goal.Each of the one or more financial planning recommendations includes aproposed action to further progress towards the financial planning goaland a recommendation status. The method includes storing dataidentifying the financial planning goal and the one or more financialplanning recommendations in a data store, such as a relational database.The method also includes monitoring progress of the financial planningclient with respect to the financial planning goal over at least aportion of a financial planning lifecycle. The monitoring includesreceiving first input from a first application at a first time andreceiving second input from a second application at a second time. Inresponse to the first input, a first goal status is stored and/or afirst recommendation status is updated. In response to the second input,a second goal status is stored and/or a second recommendation status isupdated. Thus, financial planning goals and recommendations may beshared between and accessed by multiple applications at various times.

In another particular embodiment, a system is disclosed that includes adata manager configured to store and retrieve goals and recommendationsto and from a database. Each goal stored at the database is associatedwith an objective and an updateable goal status to track progress towardmeeting the objective. Each recommendation stored at the databaseincludes a recommendation status and one or more recommendationattributes. The goal and recommendations are represented by a data filein a first data format. Each recommendation is associated with at leastone goal and includes at least one proposed action. The system alsoincludes a first interface configured to receive the data filerepresenting the goals and recommendations from the data manager and totranslate the data file representing the goals and recommendations fromthe first data format to a second data format compatible with a firstapplication. The system further includes a second interface configuredto receive the data file from the data manager and to translate the datafile representing the goals and recommendations from the first dataformat to a third data format compatible with a second application.Thus, goals and recommendations may be shared by multiple applications,even applications that have individual data format compatibilityrequirements.

In another particular embodiment, a system is disclosed that includes adata manager that is accessible by a plurality of applications. The datamanager is configured to store financial planning goals and financialplanning recommendations for a plurality of financial planning clients.The system also includes a financial planning application configured toaccess the data manager and to create a financial planning goal andassociate one or more financial planning recommendations with thefinancial planning goal. The system further includes a documentdeveloper application configured to access the data manager. Thedocument developer application is configured to modify a goal status ofan existing financial planning goal and modify a recommendation statusof an existing financial planning recommendation. The document developerapplication is further configured to generate a financial planningdocument for a particular financial planning client based on financialplanning goals and financial planning recommendations associated withthe particular financial planning client. The document developerapplication is configured to store the generated financial planningdocument at a file manager. The system supports a plurality ofinterfaces, including a first interface and a second interface. Thefirst interface enables a financial planner to view a display offinancial planning goals and financial planning recommendationsassociated with each financial planning client served by the financialplanner. The second interface may interact with a client reportingapplication that enables a financial planner or a financial planningclient to view a display of financial planning goals and financialplanning recommendations associated with the financial planning client.The system also includes a data mining module configured to monitor thedata manager, to detect one or more trends based on the monitoring, andto identify one or more products based on the one or more trends.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram to illustrate a particular embodiment of asystem 100 to manage goals and recommendations. The system 100 includesa data manager 102 communicatively coupled to a database 104. The datamanager 102 is also communicatively coupled to a first interface 110 andto a second interface 120. Although not illustrated in FIG. 1,additional interfaces may also be present and communicatively coupled tothe data manager 102.

The data manager 102 is configured to store goals and recommendations(e.g., financial planning goals and financial planning recommendationson behalf of a financial planning client) in the database 104. In aparticular embodiment, the database 104 is a relational database. Forexample, a financial planner may identify a financial planning objectivefor a financial planning client, receive information related to thefinancial planning objective, create a financial planning goal and afinancial planning recommendation based on the receive information, andsend the created financial planning goal and the financial planningrecommendation to the data manager 102 for storage.

The data manager 102 is also configured to retrieve goals andrecommendations from the database 104 and to send a data filerepresenting the retrieved goals and recommendations to one or moreinterfaces, such as the first interface 110 and the second interface120. The data file may be represented in a first data format. Forexample, the data file may be represented in eXtensible Markup Language(XML).

Each goal stored at the database 104 may include an objective and anupdateable goal status to track progress towards meeting the objective.The goals may be financial goals and may optionally includenon-financial goals. Financial goals include, but are not limited to,financial position goals, retirement goals, education goals, majorpurchase goals, cash reserve goals, income tax goals, investmentplanning goals, employee benefits planning goals, survivor income goals,disability income goals, long term care planning goals, healthcareplanning goals, property and casualty planning goals, estate planninggoals, divorce planning goals, and financial planning goals of abusiness owner.

For example, when the objective is “retirement” and the particular goalis “retire by age 55,” the updateable goal status (e.g., “on track” or“not on track”) may indicate progress towards achieving the objective.Each recommendation stored at the database 104 may include arecommendation status and one or more recommendation attributes. Forexample, the recommendation “invest 5% of each paycheck into 401(k)” maybe associated with the “retire by age 55” goal and have a recommendationstatus such as “accepted” or “rejected,” where “5%” and “401(k)” areattributes of the recommendation. It should be noted thatrecommendations and goals may change in response to external influences,while an associated client objective is maintained. For example, inresponse to a stock market downturn, a heavily invested client having anobjective of “save for retirement” may change a retirement goal from“retire by age 55” to “retire by age 60.” Recommendations associatedwith the retirement goal may also change (e.g., a decreased investmentin high-risk high-reward stocks). It should be noted that the clientobjective of “retirement” did not change.

The first interface 110 and the second interface 120 are each configuredto receive data from the data manager 102. In a particular embodiment,the first interface 110 and the second interface 120 are part of adistributed computing system that also includes the data manager 102.The first interface 110 is further configured to translate the receiveddata from the first data format (e.g., XML) to a second data format(e.g., a particular object-oriented class structure) that is compatiblewith a first application (e.g., a financial planning application,document developer application, or web-based application). The secondinterface 120 is further configured to translate the received data fromthe first data format to a third data format that is compatible with asecond application (e.g., a financial planning application, a documentdeveloper application, or a web-based application). It should be notedthat the first application and the second application may be different,and that the system 100 may interface to and interact with additionalapplications.

In a particular embodiment, the first application and the secondapplication can each modify the goals and recommendations stored in thedatabase 104. For example, when the first application modifies aparticular goal or a particular recommendation, the first applicationmay send the modified goal or recommendation to the data manager 102 viathe first interface 110. The first interface 110 may translate themodified goal or recommendation from the second data format back to thefirst data format before prior to sending the modified goal orrecommendation to the data manager 102. The data manager 102 may storethe modified goal or recommendation to the database 104. Alternatively,the data manager 102 may replace a previous version of the goal orrecommendation with the modified goal or recommendation.

As another example, when the second application modifies a particulargoal or a particular recommendation, the second application may send themodified goal or recommendation to the data manager 102 via the secondinterface 120. The second interface 120 may translate the modified goalor recommendation from the third data format back to the first dataformat prior to sending the modified goal or recommendation to the datamanager 102. The data manager 102 may then store the modified goal orrecommendation to the database 104.

In operation, the data manager 102 may store data records that includegoals and recommendations received from the first interface 110 or thesecond interface 120 at the database 104. When requested, the datamanager 102 may also retrieve goals and recommendations from thedatabase 104 and send the retrieved goals and recommendations to thefirst interface 110 and the second interface 120 via a data filerepresenting the retrieved goals and recommendations. The logic 112 atthe first interface 110 and the logic 122 at the second interface 120may translate the data file into the second data format and the thirddata format, respectively, before the goals and recommendations are used(e.g., analyzed or displayed at an application).

It will be appreciated that the system 100 of FIG. 1 may provide forcentralized storage and tracking of goals and recommendations. Thesystem 100 of FIG. 1 may support the sharing of goals andrecommendations between various applications and various contexts.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram to illustrate another particular embodiment ofa system 200 to manage goals and recommendations. The system 200includes a data manager 202 communicatively coupled to a database 204, afirst application 210, and a second application 220. In an illustrativeembodiment, the data manager 202 is the data manager 102 of FIG. 1, thedatabase 204 is the database 104 of FIG. 1, the first application 210includes the first interface 110 of FIG. 1, and the second application220 includes the second interface 120 of FIG. 1. It should be noted thatalthough the following description involves using the system 200 of FIG.2 in a financial planning context, the system 200 of FIG. 2 may also beused in other advisor-client relationship contexts.

The data manager 202 may be configured to store goals andrecommendations (e.g., financial planning goals and financial planningrecommendations for a plurality of financial planning clients) in thedatabase 204. The goals and recommendations for a particular client maybe stored in a record (e.g., as described herein with respect to theclient record 500 of FIG. 5) at the database 204 for the particularclient. In a particular embodiment, the database 204 is a relationaldatabase. The data manager 202 may also be configured to respond toapplication requests to retrieve goals and recommendations from thedatabase 204 by generating a copy of a record stored at the database 204and sending the copy to the requesting application. The data manager 202may further be configured to receive a modified copy of a record andupdate the database 204 based on the modified copy of the record.

The first application 210 may include goal and recommendation creationlogic 212 configured to create new goals and recommendations and sendthe new goals and recommendations to the data manager 202. In aparticular embodiment, each goal for a client includes a goal status(e.g., ongoing, on track, not on track, deferred, achieved, orcancelled). Each goal may also include one or more goal attributes(e.g., type of goal, description, date added, date modified, date lastchanged, or a household/client identifier).

Each recommendation may include a proposed action (e.g., transfer, applyfor, or save), a recommendation status (e.g., proposed, accepted,implemented, deferred, rejected, or cancelled), and one or morerecommendation attributes (e.g., a source financial account identifier,a source financial institution identifier, a destination financialaccount identifier, a destination financial institution identifier, asuggested monetary amount, a financial services product identifier, aninsurance provider identifier, a target completion date, a date created,a date modified, or a benefit statement). It will be appreciated thatthe proposed action and the recommendation attributes may act as agrammar that can be used by financial planners to generaterecommendations for financial planning clients. For example, arecommendation may include “Transfer <suggested monetary amount> from<source financial account> to <destination financial account>,” and afinancial planner may fill in the <suggest monetary amount>, <sourcefinancial account>, and <destination financial account> fields to tailorthe recommendation for a particular financial planning client. Otherexamples of recommendations include “Apply for <financial servicesproduct identifier> from <insurance provider identifier>,” and “Save <suggest monetary amount> in <destination financial account identifier>by <target completion date>.”

The first application 210 may also include goal and recommendationmodification logic 214 configured to receive a copy of a record from thedata manager 202, modify the copy of the record (e.g., change one ormore of a goal status, a goal attribute, a recommendation status, and arecommendation attribute), and send the modified copy of the record tothe data manager 202. In a particular embodiment, the first application210 may translate the copy of the record into a different data format,as described previously with reference to the first interface 110 ofFIG. 1.

The second application 220 may include goal and recommendationmodification logic 222 configured to receive a copy of a record from thedata manager 202, modify the copy of the record (e.g., change one ormore of a goal status, a goal attribute, a recommendation status, and arecommendation attribute), and send the modified copy of the record tothe data manager 202. In a particular embodiment, the second application220 may translate the copy of the record into a different data format,as described previously with reference to the second interface 120 ofFIG. 1.

In operation, the data manager 202 may receive a newly created goal anda newly created recommendation associated with the goal. For example,the goal and recommendation creation logic 212 at the first applicationmay create a goal, create a recommendation associated with the goal, andsend the goal and recommendation to the data manager 202. For example, agoal “have $200,000 saved for daughter's college education” may becreated, and a recommendation “deposit $1,000 each month into portfolio”may be associated with the goal. The data manager 202 may also create arecord in the database 204 that includes the newly created goal andrecommendation.

The data manager 202 may receive a request from a first requestingapplication (e.g., on a first date) that requests to read or update thepreviously created goal and recommendation. In response, the datamanager 202 may send a copy of the previously created goal andrecommendation record to the first requesting application. For example,the data manager 202 may send a copy of the record to the firstapplication 210, where the copy of the record is modified by the goaland recommendation modification logic 214. The data manager 202 may thenreceive a first modified record from the first application 210, andupdate the record at the database 204 based on the first modifiedrecord, thereby generating an updated record at the database 204. Forexample, the data manager 202 may update a goal status, a goalattribute, a recommendation status, or a recommendation attribute of therecord at the database 204 based on the first modified record receivedfrom the first application 210.

The data manager 202 may also receive a request from a second requestingapplication (e.g., on a second date subsequent to the first date) toread or modify the goal and recommendation. In response, the datamanager 202 may send a copy of the updated record to the secondrequesting application. For example, the data manager 202 may send acopy of the updated record to the second application 220, where the copyof the updated record is modified by the goal and recommendationmodification logic 222. The data manager 202 may then receive a secondmodified record from the second application 220, and update the recordat the database 204 based on the second modified record. For example,the data manager 202 may update a goal status, a goal attribute, arecommendation status, or a recommendation attribute of the record atthe database 204 based on the second modified copy of the recordreceived from the second application 220.

It will thus be appreciated that the system 200 of FIG. 2 may supportthe sharing of records (and therefore, goals and recommendations)between various applications. It will also be appreciated that by onlyallowing the data manager 202, and not individual applications (e.g.,the first application 210 or the second application 220) from writingdirectly to the database 204, the system 200 of FIG. 2 may preserve dataintegrity, simplify logic at the individual applications, and supportcompatibility with third-party vendor applications that are createdindependently of the implementation details of the data manager 202.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram to illustrate another particular embodiment ofa system 300 to manage goals and recommendations. The system 300includes a data manager 302 implemented as a software service. The datamanager 302 is configured to communicate with a database 304, such as arelational database, that includes goal and recommendation records forfinancial planning clients. The data manager 302 is accessible by afinancial planning application 310, a document development application320, and a web interface infrastructure 330. The data manager 320 isalso accessible by an analytics engine 340 configured to monitor thedata manager 320.

The data manager 302 may be configured to store financial planning goalsand financial planning recommendations associated with the financialplanning goals in the database 304. The data manager 302 may also beconfigured to retrieve financial planning goals and financial planningrecommendations from the database 304, and send a data file representingthe retrieved financial planning goals and financial planningrecommendations to one or more of the financial planning application310, the document development application 320, and the web interfaceinfrastructure 330. In a particular embodiment, the data manager 302communicates with the applications 310-320 and the infrastructure 330through the use of network communication mechanisms such as XML, SimpleObject Access Protocol (SOAP), and HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

The financial planning application 310 may include goal andrecommendation creation logic 312 configured to create new financialplanning goals and financial planning recommendations and to send thenew financial planning goals and financial planning recommendations tothe data manager 302. In a particular embodiment, each financialplanning goal for a client includes a goal status and one or more goalattributes, and each financial planning recommendation includes aproposed action, a recommendation status, and one or more recommendationattributes.

The financial planning application 310 may be used by financial plannersto create financial planning goals and financial planningrecommendations for a financial planning client (e.g., during an initialmeeting with the client). The financial planning application 310 mayalso be used by financial planners to evaluate and update financialplanning goals and financial planning recommendations for a financialplanning client (e.g., during subsequent meetings with the client).

The document development application 320 may include goal andrecommendation modification logic 326 configured to receive financialplanning goals and financial planning recommendations from the datamanager 302, modify the received financial planning goals and financialplanning recommendations (e.g., change one or more of a goal status, agoal attribute, a recommendation status, and a recommendationattribute), and send the modified financial planning goals and financialplanning recommendations to the data manager 302.

The document development application 320 may also include financialplanning document generation logic 324 configured to create a financialplanning document for a financial planning client based on documenttemplates 322 and financial planning goals and financial planningrecommendations received from the data manager 302. In a particularembodiment, a user (e.g., a financial planner) selects the particulardocument template used by the logic 324.

The web interface infrastructure 330 may be configured to support aplurality of web interfaces based on data received from the data manager302. In a particular embodiment, the web interface infrastructure 330includes logic 332 to interact with a planner web interface. The plannerweb interface may include, for a particular financial planner, a displayof financial planning goals and financial planning recommendationsassociated with each client served by the particular financial planner.A display of a particular financial planning goal may include a displayof the goal status and goal attributes of the particular goal, and adisplay of a particular financial planning recommendation may include adisplay of the recommendation status and recommendation attributes ofthe particular financial planning recommendation. The planner webinterface may identify actions due for a particular financial planningclient (e.g., identify that client X has not yet applied for lifeinsurance even though such an action was previously recommended byclient X's financial planner). Thus, the planner web interface may allowfinancial planners to monitor the status of recommendations that thefinancial planners have proposed (e.g., recommendations with statusesother than “implemented”). The planner web interface may also be useableto respond to inquiries from financial planning clients (e.g., respondto a question about the insurance application process related to therecommendation that client X obtain life insurance by Y date).

In a particular embodiment, the web interface infrastructure 330includes logic 334 to interact with a client web interface. The clientweb interface may display, for a particular financial planning client,the goals and recommendations associated with the particular financialplanning client. Thus, the client web interface may provide financialplanning clients with a convenient method to track their own progresswith respect to financial planning goals and recommendations.

The analytics engine 340 may be configured to monitor the creation andmodification of financial planning goals and financial planningrecommendations by monitoring the data records and data transactions atdata manager 302. The analytics engine 340 may include trend detectionlogic 342 configured to mine monitoring data to detect macro-leveltrends in the system 300. For example, the trend detection logic 340 mayidentify trends in financial planning client behavior (e.g., clients aremore likely to implement recommendations to invest in bonds thanrecommendations to invest in stocks), financial planner performance(e.g., a particular financial planner is adept at helping clientsachieve education planning goals but not insurance planning goals), andfinancial planning products (e.g., a particular financial servicesprovider has a higher acceptance rate than another similar financialservices provider).

It will be appreciated that financial planning enterprises deploying thesystem 300 of FIG. 3 may use the trends detected by the analytics engine340 to improve the level of service provided by the enterprise (e.g.,provide financial planners training in certain areas or modify theallocation of financial planning services and products), which mayresult in improved financial planning customer satisfaction.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram to illustrate another particular embodiment ofa system 400 to manage goals and recommendations. The system 400 mayinclude a goals and recommendations manager 402 communicatively coupledto a plurality of applications and interfaces, such as a financialplanning application 410, a document developer 420, a contact manager430, an advisor viewer 432, a client “my financial accounts” interface434, a business intelligence analysis engine 436, and a productallocator 450.

The goals and recommendations manager 402 may be configured to storereceived financial planning goals and financial planning recommendationsassociated with the financial planning goals (e.g., at a database). Thedata manager 402 may also be configured to send (e.g., after retrievalfrom the database) financial planning goals and financial planningrecommendations to one or more applications or systems, such as thefinancial planning application 410, the document developer 420, thecontact manager 430, the advisor viewer 432, the client “my financialaccounts” interface 434, and the business analysis engine 436.

The financial planning application 410 may be configured to createfinancial planning goals and financial planning recommendations and sendthe created financial planning goals and financial planningrecommendations to the goals and recommendations manager 402. In aparticular embodiment, the financial planning application 410 includesNaviPlan, a financial planning software application available fromEmerging Information Systems, Inc, at Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.Alternatively, the financial planning application 410 may be some othersoftware application.

The document developer 420 may include document management services 422,word processing functionality 424, and print processing functionality426. In a particular embodiment, the document developer 420 includescharacteristics of the document developer application 320 of FIG. 3. Inanother particular embodiment, the document developer 420 includesauto-update on print functionality. That is, when a financial planneruses the document developer 420 to generate a financial planningdocument for a particular client, the document developer 420 mayautomatically update the goals and recommendations for the particularclient (e.g., by sending the goals and recommendations for theparticular client to the goals and recommendations manager 402) when thefinancial planner prints the financial planning document (e.g., byactivating the print processing functionality 426). It will thus beappreciated that the document developer 420 may be used to update goalsand recommendations (e.g., via auto-update on print functionality)without having to change existing financial planner workflow.

The document developer 420 may also store financial planning documentsat an online file manager 440. In a particular embodiment, the onlinefile manager 420 is accessible by financial planning clients, so thatthe clients may retrieve their financial planning documents (e.g., fromthe client's home).

The contact manager interface 430 may be accessible by a plurality offinancial planner computers 470 and may include, for each particularfinancial planner, a listing of financial planning goals that have notbeen achieved and financial planning recommendations that have not beenimplemented for clients served by the particular financial planner. Thecontact manager interface 430 may also include contact information forfinancial institutions (e.g., banks) and financial services providers(e.g., stock brokers) recommended by the financial planner to thefinancial planning client.

The advisor viewer interface 432 may be accessible by the financialplanner computers 470 and may include, for each particular financialplanner, a view of the financial planning goals and financial planningrecommendations for each client served by the particular financialplanner. The advisor viewer interface 432 may provide the ability to“drill down” and view detailed information for an individual financialplanning goal or an individual financial planning recommendation. In aparticular embodiment, the advisor viewer interface 432 also providesthe user (e.g., the financial planner) the ability to modify existingfinancial planning goals and financial planning recommendations.

The client “my financial accounts” interface 434 may be accessible bycomputers located outside a financial planning enterprise (e.g., afinancial planning client's client computer 460). The client “myfinancial accounts” interface may include, for a particular financialplanning client, a view of the financial planning goals and financialplanning recommendations associated with the particular financialplanning client. In a particular embodiment, the interface 434 mayprovide each particular financial planning client with the ability toinput information related to the client's associated financial planninggoals and financial planning recommendations (e.g., allow the client toindicate that he or she has implemented a particular recommendation ortaken a specific action related to a recommendation). In a particularembodiment, the computers 460 and 470 include desktop and laptopcomputers with web browsers.

The business intelligence analysis engine 436 may monitor the goals andrecommendations manager 402, and may mine the data generated by suchmonitoring. In a particular embodiment, the business intelligenceanalysis engine 436 may identify trends and opportunities based on thedata mining. The identified trends and opportunities may be used toselect new products (e.g., financial services products) from a list ofproduct companies 438. Information regarding these new products may besent to the product allocator 450, and the product allocator 450 mayinput the information to the goals and recommendations manager 402, sothat the goals and recommendations manager 402 may recommend the newproducts in the future. Thus, the business intelligence analysis engine436 may be used to add, remove, or modify the financial servicesproducts available in the goals and recommendations manager (andtherefore recommended by financial planners) on the basis of high leveltrends and opportunities determined from evaluating data from the goalsand recommendations manager 402.

It will be appreciated the system 400 of FIG. 4 may provide forcentralized storage and tracking of goals and recommendations. Thus, thesystem 400 of FIG. 4 may support the sharing of goals andrecommendations between various applications and various contexts.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram to illustrate a particular embodiment of aclient record 500. In an illustrative embodiment, the client record 500is stored at the database 104 of FIG. 1, at the database 204 of FIG. 2,at the database 304 of FIG. 3, or by the goals and recommendationsmanager 402 of FIG. 4.

A client record may include a plurality of goals for a financialplanning client. For example, the client record 500 may include a firstrepresentative goal 510 and a second representative goal 530. Each goalmay include a goal status and one or more goal attributes. For example,the first goal 510 includes the goal status 511 and the goalattribute(s) 512, and the second goal 530 includes the goal status 531and the goal attribute(s) 532.

Each goal may also be associated with one or more recommendations. In aparticular embodiment, the recommendations associated with a particulargoal are stored within the particular goal. For example, the first goal510 includes the recommendations 513, 516, and 519, and the second goal530 includes the recommendations 533, 536, and 539. Alternatively, therecommendations may be stored separately from the goals, and a goal mayinclude a link or reference to the recommendation(s) associated with thegoal.

Each recommendation may include a recommendation status and one or morerecommendation attributes. For example, the recommendation 513 includesthe recommendation status 514 and the recommendation attribute(s) 515,the recommendation 516 includes the recommendation status 517 and therecommendation attribute(s) 518, and the recommendation 519 includes therecommendation status 520 and the recommendation attribute(s) 521. Asanother example, the recommendation 533 includes the recommendationstatus 534 and the recommendation attribute(s) 535, the recommendation536 includes the recommendation status 537 and the recommendationattribute(s) 538, and the recommendation 539 includes the recommendationstatus 540 and the recommendation attribute(s) 541.

In a particular embodiment, the client record 500 includes informationrelated to the financial planning client other than the goals andrecommendations. For example, the client record 500 may also includeinformation regarding one or more of assets of the financial planningclient (e.g., property holdings), liabilities of the financial planningclient (e.g., debts), income of the financial planning client (e.g.,salary), expenses of the financial planning client (e.g., mortgagepayments), investments of the financial planning client (e.g., stockholdings), and family status of the financial planning client (e.g.,single, married, and number of dependents). In a particular embodiment,this information is used by financial planners in creating goals andrecommendations for the financial planning client that are tailored tohelp the financial planning client achieve one or more clientobjectives.

In a particular embodiment, different portions of the client record 500may be non-modifiable by different applications. That is, the clientrecord 500 may include a portion that is modifiable by a firstapplication but not a second application. The client record 500 may alsoinclude constant, immutable portions. That is, the client record 500 mayinclude a portion that is not modifiable by any application after theclient record 500 is created.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram to illustrate a particular embodiment of amethod 600 of managing goals and recommendations. In an illustrativeembodiment, the method 600 is performed by the system 100 of FIG. 1, thesystem 200 of FIG. 2, the system 300 of FIG. 3, or the system 400 ofFIG. 4.

The method 600 includes indentifying one or more financial planningobjectives for a financial planning client, at 602, and receivinginformation related to the one or more financial planning objectives, at604. For example, in FIG. 4, a financial planner (e.g., at one of thefinancial planner computers 470) may identify financial planningobjectives and receive information related to the financial planningobjects during an initial meeting with a prospective financial planningclient.

The method 600 also includes creating a financial planning goal for thefinancial planning client based at least in part on an analysis of theinformation, at 606. For example, in FIG. 4, the financial planner mayuse the financial planning application 410 to analyze the informationand create a financial planning goal.

The method 600 further includes associating one or more financialplanning recommendations with the financial planning goal, at 608. Eachof the one or more financial planning recommendations includes aproposed action to further progress towards the financial planning goaland a recommendation status. For example, in FIG. 4, the financialplanner may use the financial planning application 410 to associate thefinancial planning goal (e.g., “Retire by age 55”) with one or morefinancial planning recommendations (e.g., “Invest the maximum allowed ina Roth IRA every year”).

The method 600 includes storing data identifying the financial planninggoal and the financial planning recommendations in a data store, at 610.For example, in FIG. 4, the goals and recommendations manager 402 maystore data identifying the financial planning goal and the one or morefinancial planning recommendation. In an illustrative embodiment, thedata is stored at a database, such as the database 104 of FIG. 1, thedatabase 204 of FIG. 2, or the database 304 of FIG. 3. In anotherillustrative embodiment, the data identifying the financial planninggoal and the financial planning recommendations is formatted asdescribed herein with reference to the client record 500 of FIG. 5.

The method 600 also includes monitoring progress of the financialplanning client with respect to the financial planning goal over atleast a portion (e.g., a time period between two financial planningsessions) of a financial planning life cycle, at 612.

The monitoring includes storing a first goal status associated with thefinancial planning goal or a first updated recommendation status of afinancial planning recommendation in the data store based on first inputreceived from a first application at a first time, as shown at 614. Forexample, in FIG. 4, the goal status of the financial planning goal or arecommendation status of one of the financial planning recommendationsmay be updated by the goals and recommendations manager 402 based oninput received at the client “my financial accounts” interface 436. Themonitoring also includes storing a second goal status associated withthe financial planning goal or a second updated recommendation status ofa financial planning recommendation in the data store based on secondinput received from a second application at a second time, as shown at616. The second goal status may be different than the first goal status.For example, in FIG. 4, the goal status of the financial planning goalor the recommendation status of the financial planning recommendationmay be updated by the goals and recommendations manager 402 based oninput received at the document developer 420 on a second date. The firstinput or the second input may be received after an interaction with thefinancial planning client (e.g., from a web interface accessed by thefinancial planning client), from a financial advisor assigned to thefinancial planning client (e.g., from a financial planner during afinancial planning session), or by a party other than the client and theadvisor (e.g., from an insurance company report that indicates that theclient has successfully applied for life insurance). In a particularembodiment, the first time corresponds to a first financial planningsession and the second time corresponds to a second financial planningsession. The first financial planning session may correspond to a firstfinancial event (e.g., a home purchase) and the second financialplanning session may correspond to a second financial event (e.g., a newchild born into a client's family). A financial planning session mayinclude accessing analytical data related to financial planning goalsand recommendations from a plurality of applications.

It should be noted that although the method 600 includes only twoupdates for the purposes of illustration, the method 600 is not limitedto two updates. Instead, the method 600 may include any number ofupdates.

The method 600 of FIG. 6 may enable the monitoring, sharing, andupdating of financial planning goals and recommendations betweendifferent applications at different times (e.g., over multipleone-on-one financial planning sessions between a financial planner and afinancial planning client during the financial planning life cycle or atother times between financial planning sessions).

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of another particular embodiment of a method700 of managing goals and recommendations. In an illustrativeembodiment, the method 700 is performed by the data manger 102 of FIG.1, the data manager 202 of FIG. 2, the data manager 302 of FIG. 3, orthe goals and recommendations manager 402 of FIG. 4.

The method 700 includes receiving a financial planning goal associatedwith a financial planning client, where the financial planning goalidentifies a client objective and includes a goal status and one or moregoal attributes, at 702. For example, in FIG. 2, the data manager 202may receive a financial planning goal created by the goal andrecommendation creation logic 212 at the first application 210.

The method 700 also includes receiving a financial planningrecommendation associated with the financial planning goal, where thefinancial planning recommendation includes a recommendation status andone or more recommendation attributes, at 704. For example, in FIG. 2,the data manager 202 may receive a financial planning recommendationcreated by the goal and recommendation creation logic 212 at the firstapplication 210.

The method 700 further includes creating a record in a database, wherethe record includes the financial planning goal, the financial planningrecommendation, and one or more client attributes of the financialplanning client, at 706. For example, in FIG. 2, the data manger 202 maycreate a record in the database 204.

The method 700 includes sending a copy of the record to a firstapplication, at 708. For example, in FIG. 2, the data manager 202 maysend a copy of the created record to the goal and recommendationmodification logic 214 at the first application 210.

The method 700 also includes receiving a first modified record from thefirst application, where the first modified record includes at least onemodification to the copy of the record, at 710. For example, in FIG. 2,the data manager may receive a first modified record from the goal andrecommendation modification logic 214 at the first application 210.

The method 700 further includes updating the record in the databasebased on the first modified record, at 712. For example, in FIG. 2, thedata manager 202 may update the record in the database 204 based on thefirst modified record.

The method 700 includes sending a copy of the updated record to a secondapplication, at 714. For example, in FIG. 2, the data manager 202 maysend a copy of the updated record to the goal and recommendationmodification logic 222 at the second application 220.

The method 700 also includes receiving a second modified record from thesecond application, where the second modified record includes at leastone modification to the copy of the updated record, at 716. For example,in FIG. 2, the data manager 202 may receive a second modified recordfrom the goal and recommendation modification logic 222 at the secondapplication 220.

The method 700 further includes updating the record in the databasebased on the second modified record, at 718. For example, in FIG. 2, thedata manager 202 may update the record in the database 204 based on thesecond modified record.

It will be appreciated that the method 700 of FIG. 7 may provide forcentralized storage and management of financial planning goals andfinancial planning recommendations. It will also be appreciated that themethod 700 of FIG. 7 may enable the sharing of financial planning goaland financial planning recommendations between multiple applications. Itshould be noted that although the method 700 of FIG. 7 includes only twoupdates for the purposes of illustration, the method 700 is not limitedto only two updates. Instead, the method 700 of FIG. 7 may include anynumber of updates.

FIG. 8 depicts two screenshots 802 and 804 of a particular embodiment ofa client view interface that displays goals and recommendations. In anillustrative embodiment, the client view interface is supported by theweb interface infrastructure 330 of FIG. 3 and is the advisor viewerinterface 432 of FIG. 4.

The first screenshot 802 includes a display of financial planning goalsfor a financial planning client John A. Smith, having householdidentifier 0010007097060. Each goal also has a displayed description,status, and status changed date. The second screenshot 804 includes adetailed “drill down” display for a particular goal. The detaileddisplay for the particular goal includes further display of a goal type,date added, and date modified. It will be appreciated that the detaileddisplay illustrated in the second screenshot 804 enables modification ofa goal description (e.g., via a text box) and a goal status (e.g., via adrop-down menu).

FIG. 9 depicts two additional screenshots 902 and 904 of the particularembodiment of the client view interface of FIG. 8. In an illustrativeembodiment, the client view interface is realized using the webinterface infrastructure 330 of FIG. 3 and is the advisor viewerinterface 432 of FIG. 4.

The first screenshot 902 includes a display of financial planningrecommendations for planning client John A. Smith, having householdidentifier 0010007097060. Each recommendation has a displayed goal name,a goal status, a recommendation action, a recommendation status, and atarget date. The second screenshot 904 includes a detailed “drill down”display for a particular recommendation. The detailed display for eachparticular recommendation includes further display of a benefit andcomment statement, a date added, a date modified, and data identifyingthe financial planner who last modified the particular recommendation.It will be appreciated that the detailed display illustrated in thesecond screenshot 904 enables the modification of a target date (e.g.,via a text box) and a recommendation status (e.g., via a drop-downmenu).

In a particular embodiment, a goals and recommendations manager (e.g.,the goals and recommendations manager 402 of FIG. 4) maintains ahierarchical list of goals and associated recommendations. In such anembodiment, creating a new recommendation includes accessing aninterface (e.g., a web interface or an interface accessible from anapplication, such as the financial planning application 410 of FIG. 4 orthe document developer application 420 of FIG. 4) provided by the goalsand recommendations manager to select the desired new recommendation.For example, the interface may include the interface as described hereinwith reference to FIG. 10.

In a particular embodiment, a first level of a hierarchy includes goalcategories (e.g., protection goals, accumulation goals, tax goals,financial position goals, employee benefit goals, health care goals, andproperty and casualty goals).

A second level of the hierarchy may include particular goal types. Forexample, protection goals may include survivor income goals, disabilityincome goals, and long-term care goals. Accumulation goals may includeretirement planning goals, educational planning goals, major purchasegoals, cash reserve goals, and investment goals. Tax goals may includeincome tax and estate tax goals. Financial position goals may includecash flow goals and net worth goals.

A third level of the hierarchy may include a prioritized list ofrecommendation categories. For example, in the case of protection goalssuch as survivor income, disability income, and long-term care, highpriority recommendations may be insurance solution categories, such as“buy new insurance,” “apply for supplemental insurance,” “use existinginsurance,” and “drop existing insurance.” Medium priorityrecommendations may be accumulation categories such as “open new fund”and “use existing fund.” Low priority recommendations may include othertechniques such as “open a supplemental account.”

As another example, in the case of accumulation goals such asretirement, education, major purchase, case reserve, and investment,high priority recommendations may include accumulation categories suchas “save,” “transfer,” and “improve rate of return.” Low priorityrecommendations may include other techniques such as “changeamount/timing,” “transition to retirement,” and “borrow.” The educationplanning accumulation goal may have highest priority recommendations ina strategic planning category such as “<2 years to college,” “2-10 yearsto college,” and “>10 years to college.” The investment planningaccumulation goal may have highest priority recommendations in a generalstrategy category, such as “general advice,” “professional management,”and “repositioning.” The retirement planning accumulation goal may havelowest priority recommendations in a distribution category such as“liquidation order,” “retirement plans,” “regular taxable,” “annuities,”“non-qualifying assets,” “life insurance,” “investment real estate,”“business,” and “home.”

As another example, the “income tax” tax planning goal may prioritizerecommendations for a plurality of areas (e.g., wealth, retirement,education, health care, life insurance, disability insurance, long-termcare, and employee benefits) based on desirability. That is, tax-freerecommendations may be the highest priority recommendations and taxdeductions may be the lowest priority recommendation. In a particularembodiment, the categories may include (in decreasing order ofpriority): tax-free (e.g., municipal bonds, t-bills, Roth IRA, healthinsurance, $50,000 group term life insurance, employee cafeteria plan),tax rate changing (e.g., capital gains & losses, and custodialaccounts), tax deferring (e.g., US Savings Bonds, annuities, andemployee stock options), tax credits (e.g., low income housing, foreigntax, hope & lifetime learning credits), and tax deductions (e.g.,mortgage and home equity loans, traditional IRAs, college student loaninterest, medical expenses, and employee job expenses).

FIG. 10 depicts two screenshots 1002 and 1004 of a goals andrecommendations manager interface that includes a hierarchicalcategorization of goals and recommendations. The hierarchy in the firstscreenshot 1002, in order of broadest to narrowest, is “disabilityincome goals,” “insurance solutions,” and “buy new insurance.” Therecommendation details for the selected recommendation “apply forindividual long term DI insurance” may include an action and a benefitstatement, as illustrated in the first screenshot 1002.

The hierarchy in the second screenshot 1004, in order of broadest tonarrowest, is “education goals,” “strategic planning for educationfunding,” and “over 10 years until college.” The recommendation detailsfor the selected recommendation “begin planning now” may include anaction and a benefit statement, as illustrated in the second screenshot1004.

It will thus be appreciated that a goals and recommendations managerinterface, such as the interface depicted by the screenshots 1002 and1004 of FIG. 10, may be used by financial planners to categorize,locate, and assign goals and recommendations to clients.

In a particular embodiment, a computer-readable medium is disclosed thatincludes instructions, that when executed by a computer, cause thecomputer to receiving a financial planning goal associated with afinancial planning client. The financial planning goal identifies aclient objective and includes a goal status and one or more goalattributes. The computer-readable medium also includes instructions,that when executed by the computer, cause the computer to receive afinancial planning recommendation associated with the financial planninggoal. The financial planning recommendation includes a recommendationstatus and one or more recommendation attributes. The computer-readablemedium also includes instructions, that when executed by the computer,cause the computer to create a record in a relational database, wherethe record includes the financial planning goal, the financial planningrecommendation, and one or more client attributes of the financialplanning client. The computer-readable medium includes instructions,that when executed by the computer, cause the computer to send a copy ofthe record to a first application, receive a first modified record fromthe first application, and update the record in the relational databasebased on the first modified record. The first modified record includesat least one modification to the copy of the record. Thecomputer-readable medium also includes instructions, that when executedby the computer, cause the computer to send a copy of the updated recordto a second application, receive a second modified record from thesecond application, and update the record in the relational databasebased on the second modified record. The second modified record includesat least one modification to the copy of the updated record.

The computer may include a data manager, such as the data manager 102 ofFIG. 1, the data manager 202 of FIG. 2, the data manager 302 of FIG. 3,or the goals and recommendations manager 402 of FIG. 4. The computer mayalso interface (e.g., via the interfaces 110-120 of FIG. 1) with aplurality of applications, such as the applications 210-220 of FIG. 2,the applications 310-340 of FIG. 3, and the applications 410, 420,430-438, and 450 of FIG. 4. The computer may also store and retrievedata to and from a database, such as the database 104 of FIG. 1, thedatabase 204 of FIG. 2, or the database 304 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 11 shows a block diagram of a computing environment 1100 includinga representative computing device 1110 operable to support embodimentsof computer-implemented methods, computer program products, and systemcomponents according to the present disclosure. In an illustrativeembodiment, the computing device 1110 may implement one or more of thecomponents of the system 100 of FIG. 1, the system 200 of FIG. 2, thesystem 300 of FIG. 3, or the system 400 of FIG. 4.

The computing device 1110 includes at least one processor 1120 andsystem memory 1130. Depending on the configuration and type of computingdevice, the system memory 1130 may be volatile (such as random accessmemory or “RAM”), non-volatile (such as read-only memory or “ROM,” flashmemory, and similar memory devices that maintain stored data even whenpower is not provided) or some combination of the two. The system memory1130 typically includes an operating system 1132 and one or moreapplications. For example, the system memory 1130 may include one ormore of a financial planning application 1132, a document developerapplication 1136, and a data mining application 1138. In an illustrativeembodiment, the financial planning application includes the financialplanning application 310 of FIG. 3 or the financial planning application410 of FIG. 4, the document developer application 1136 includes thedocument development application 320 of FIG. 3 or the document developer420 of FIG. 4, and the data mining application 1138 includes theanalytic engine 340 of FIG. 3 or the business analysis engine 436 ofFIG. 4. Alternatively, the applications may be located at multiplecomputing devices, where the multiple computing devices are part of adistributed computing system. In this case, one or more of the multiplecomputing devices of the distributed system may comprise therepresentative computing device 1110.

The computing device 1110 may also have additional features orfunctionality. For example, the computing device 110 may also includeremovable and/or non-removable data storage devices such as magneticdisks, optical disks, tape, and standard-sized or miniature flash memorycards. Such additional storage is illustrated in FIG. 11 by storage1140. Computer storage media may include volatile and/or non-volatilestorage and removable and/or non-removable media implemented in anymethod or technology for storage of information such ascomputer-readable instructions, data structures, program components orother data. The system memory 1130 and the storage 1140 are examples ofcomputer storage media. The computer storage media includes, but is notlimited to, RAM, ROM, electrically erasable programmable read-onlymemory (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, compact disks(CD), digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magneticcassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magneticstorage devices, or any other medium that can be used to storeinformation and that can be accessed by computing device 1110. Any suchcomputer storage media may be part of the computing device 1110. Thecomputing device 1110 may also have input device(s) 1160, such as akeyboard, mouse, pen, voice input device, touch input device, etc. Whenthe computing device 1110 is a financial planner computer (e.g., one ofthe financial planner computers 470 of FIG. 4), the input device(s) 1160may be used by a financial planner 1192 to communicate with thecomputing device 1110. Output device(s) 1170, such as a display,speakers, a printer, etc. may also be included.

The computing device 1110 also contains one or more communicationconnections 1180 that allow the computing device 1110 to communicatewith a database 1190 and financial planning client computer(s) 1196 viaa wired or a wireless network 1194. In an illustrative embodiment, thedatabase 1190 is the database 104 of FIG. 1, the database 204 of FIG. 2,or the database 304 of FIG. 3. In another illustrative embodiment, thefinancial planning client computer(s) 1196 connect to the computingdevice 1110 via a web interface, such as the client “my financialaccounts” interface 434 of FIG. 4.

The communication connections 1180 are an example of communicationmedia. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media mayinclude wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection,and wireless media, such as acoustic, radio frequency (RF), infrared andother wireless media. It will be appreciated, however, that not all ofthe components or devices illustrated in FIG. 11 or otherwise describedin the previous paragraphs are necessary to support embodiments asherein described. For example, the output device(s) 1170 may beoptional.

The illustrations of the embodiments described herein are intended toprovide a general understanding of the structure of the variousembodiments. The illustrations are not intended to serve as a completedescription of all of the elements and features of apparatus and systemsthat utilize the structures or methods described herein. Many otherembodiments may be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewingthe disclosure. Other embodiments may be utilized and derived from thedisclosure, such that structural and logical substitutions and changesmay be made without departing from the scope of the disclosure.Accordingly, the disclosure and the figures are to be regarded asillustrative rather than restrictive.

Those of skill would further appreciate that the various illustrativelogical blocks, configurations, modules, and process or instructionsteps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein maybe implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, orcombinations of both. Various illustrative components, blocks,configurations, modules, or steps have been described generally in termsof their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented ashardware or software depends upon the particular application and designconstraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans mayimplement the described functionality in varying ways for eachparticular application, but such implementation decisions should not beinterpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the presentdisclosure.

The steps of a method described in connection with the embodimentsdisclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a softwaremodule executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. Asoftware module may reside in computer readable media, such as randomaccess memory (RAM), flash memory, read only memory (ROM), registers, ahard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storagemedium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to theprocessor such that the processor can read information from, and writeinformation to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storagemedium may be integral to the processor or the processor and the storagemedium may reside as discrete components in a computing device orcomputer system.

Although specific embodiments have been illustrated and describedherein, it should be appreciated that any subsequent arrangementdesigned to achieve the same or similar purpose may be substituted forthe specific embodiments shown. This disclosure is intended to cover anyand all subsequent adaptations or variations of various embodiments.

The previous description of the embodiments is provided to enable aperson skilled in the art to make or use the embodiments. Variousmodifications to these embodiments will be readily apparent to thoseskilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may beapplied to other embodiments without departing from the scope of thedisclosure. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited tothe embodiments shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scopepossible consistent with the principles and novel features as defined bythe following claims, and their equivalents.

1. A financial planning method comprising: identifying one or morefinancial planning objectives for a financial planning client; receivinginformation relating to the one or more financial planning objectives;creating a financial planning goal for the financial planning clientbased at least in part on an analysis of the information; associatingone or more financial planning recommendations with the financialplanning goal, wherein each of the one or more financial planningrecommendations includes a proposed action to further progress towardsthe financial planning goal and a recommendation status; storing dataidentifying the financial planning goal and the one or more financialplanning recommendations in a data store; and monitoring progress of thefinancial planning client with respect to the financial planning goalover at least a portion of a financial planning life cycle, comprising:storing at least one of a first goal status associated with thefinancial planning goal and a first updated recommendation status of atleast one of the one or more financial planning recommendations in thedata store in response to receiving first input from a first applicationat a first time; and storing at least one of a second goal statusassociated with the financial planning goal and a second updatedrecommendation status of the at least one financial planningrecommendation in the data store in response to receiving second inputfrom a second application at a second time.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the information includes information regarding assets of thefinancial planning client, liabilities of the financial planning client,income of the financial planning client, expenses of the financialplanning client, investments of the financial planning client, familystatus of the financial planning client, or any combination thereof. 3.The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first input from thefirst application and the second input from the second application isreceived after an interaction with the financial planning client.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first input from thefirst application and the second input from the second application isreceived from a financial advisor assigned to the financial planningclient.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the firstinput from the first application and the second input from the secondapplication is received from a party other than the financial planningclient and a financial advisor assigned to the financial planningclient.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first goal status is oneof an ongoing status, an on track status, a not on track status, adeferred status, an achieved status, and a cancelled status, and whereinthe second goal status is different than the first goal status.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the financial planning goal includes a goalattribute that is a type, a description, a date added, a date modified,a date changed, or a household identifier.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein the first and second updated recommendation status are eachselected from the group consisting of a proposed status, an acceptedstatus, an implemented status, a deferred status, a rejected status, anda cancelled status.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one ofthe one or more financial planning recommendations includes arecommendation attribute that is a source financial account identifier,a source financial institution identifier, a destination financialaccount identifier, a destination financial institution identifier, asuggested monetary amount, a financial services product identifier, aninsurance provider identifier, a target completion date, a date created,a data modified, or a benefit statement.
 10. The method of claim 1,wherein monitoring the progress of the financial planning client furthercomprises generating a client report for the financial planning client,wherein the client report includes a display of the one or morefinancial planning objectives, a display of the financial planning goal,and a display of the one or more financial planning recommendations. 11.The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring the progress of the financialplanning client comprises receiving information related to a pluralityof financial planning sessions between the financial planning client anda financial planning advisor that occur during the financial planninglife cycle, wherein the first time corresponds to a first financialplanning session, and wherein the second time corresponds to a secondfinancial planning session.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein thefirst financial planning session corresponds to a first financial eventand the second financial planning session corresponds to a secondfinancial event.
 13. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one of theplurality of financial planning sessions includes accessing analyticaldata related to the financial planning goal and the associated financialplanning recommendations from a plurality of applications.
 14. Acomputer-readable medium comprising instructions, that when executed bya computer, cause the computer to: receive a financial planning goalassociated with a financial planning client, wherein the financialplanning goal identifies a client objective and includes a goal statusand one or more goal attributes; receive a financial planningrecommendation associated with the financial planning goal, wherein thefinancial planning recommendation includes a recommendation status andone or more recommendation attributes; create a record in a database,wherein the record includes the financial planning goal, the financialplanning recommendation, and one or more client attributes of thefinancial planning client; send a copy of the record to a firstapplication; receive a first modified record from the first application,wherein the first modified record includes at least one modification tothe copy of the record; update the record in the database based on thefirst modified record; send a copy of the updated record to a secondapplication; receive a second modified record from the secondapplication, wherein the second modified record includes at least onemodification to the copy of the updated record; and update the record inthe database based on the second modified record.
 15. Thecomputer-readable medium of 14, wherein the first modified record isgenerated by the first application on a first date and wherein thesecond modified record is generated by the second application on asecond date that is subsequent to the first date.
 16. Thecomputer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the copy of the record issent to the first application via an eXtensible Markup Language (XML)message, a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) message, or anycombination thereof.
 17. The computer-readable medium of claim 14,wherein at least one of the first application and the second applicationis a financial planning application.
 18. The computer-readable medium ofclaim 14, wherein at least one of the first application and the secondapplication is a document development application.
 19. Thecomputer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein at least one of the firstapplication and the second application is a web application.
 20. Thecomputer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein a portion of the record ismodifiable by the first application and not modifiable by the secondapplication.
 21. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein aportion of the record is not modifiable after the record is created. 22.The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the first applicationconverts the copy of the record into a first application record having adata format native to the first application and creates the firstmodified record based on an analysis of the first application record.23. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the firstapplication is supplied by a first application vendor and the secondapplication is supplied by a second application vendor that is differentfrom the first application vendor.
 24. A system comprising: a datamanager configured to: store goals and recommendations to a database;and retrieve goals and recommendations from the database, wherein eachgoal stored at the database includes a goal description and anupdateable goal status to track progress toward meeting the goal andwherein each recommendation stored at the database includes arecommendation status and one or more recommendation attributes, andwherein the goals and recommendations are represented by a data file ina first data format and wherein each recommendation is associated withat least one goal and includes at least one proposed action; a firstinterface configured to receive the data file representing the goals andrecommendations from the data manager and to translate the data filerepresenting the goals and recommendations from the first data format toa second data format compatible with a first application; and a secondinterface configured to receive the data file representing the goals andrecommendations from the data manager and to translate the data filerepresenting the goals and recommendations from the first data format toa third data format compatible with a second application.
 25. The systemof claim 24, wherein the database includes at least one goal that is afinancial planning goal and at least one recommendation that is afinancial planning recommendation associated with the financial planninggoal.
 26. The system of claim 25, wherein the financial planning goal isa financial position goal, a retirement goal, an education goal, a majorpurchase goal, a cash reserve goal, an income tax goal, an investmentplanning goal, an employee benefits planning goal, a survivor incomegoal, a disability income goal, a long term care planning goal, ahealthcare planning goal, a property and casualty planning goal, anestate planning goal, a divorce planning goal, a financial planning goalof a business owner, or any combination thereof.
 27. The system of claim24, wherein the database includes at least one goal that is anon-financial goal.
 28. The system of claim 24, wherein the database isa relational database and wherein the data manager is further configuredto receive and transmit the data file representing the goals andrecommendations via XML messages, SOAP messages, or any combinationthereof.
 29. The system of claim 24, wherein the first application is afinancial planning application.
 30. The system of claim 29, wherein thefinancial planning application is configured to: when a currentfinancial planning client is a new client: receive user input regardingthe new client; create one or more goals based on the user input; createone or more recommendations for each of the one or more goals; and senddata identifying the one or more goals and the one or morerecommendations to the data manager via the first interface; and whenthe current financial planning client is an existing client: modify agoal status of a particular existing goal; modify a goal attribute of aparticular goal; modify a recommendation status of a particular existingrecommendation; modify a recommendation attribute of a particularexisting recommendation; and send one or more of the modified goalstatus and the modified existing recommendation status to the datamanager.
 31. The system of claim 24, further comprising a web interfaceinfrastructure configured to support a planner web interface for aplurality of financial planners, wherein the planner web interface for aparticular financial planner includes a display of goals andrecommendations associated with each client served by the particularfinancial planner, wherein a display of a particular goal includes adisplay of the goal status of the particular goal and wherein a displayof a particular recommendation includes a display of the recommendationstatus and a display of the one or more recommendation attributes of theparticular recommendation.
 32. The system of claim 31, wherein theplanner web interface further identifies actions due for a particularfinancial planning client and is useable by the particular financialplanner to respond to inquiries from the particular financial planningclient.
 33. The system of claim 32, wherein the planner web interface isfurther useable by the particular financial planner to monitor financialplanning recommendations having a recommendation status other thanimplemented.
 34. The system of claim 31, wherein the web interfaceinfrastructure is further configured to support a client web interfacethat includes a display of goals and recommendations associated with aparticular financial planning client.
 35. The system of claim 24,wherein the second application is a document development applicationconfigured to receive a user selection of a document template, toreceive goals and recommendations for a particular financial planningclient, and to create a financial planning document for the particularfinancial planning client based on the document template and thereceived goals and recommendations.
 36. The system of claim 35, whereinthe document development application is further configured toautomatically update the received goals and recommendations and send theupdated goals and recommendations to the data manager when a printfunction of the document development application is activated.
 37. Thesystem of claim 24, further comprising an analytics engine configured tomonitor activity of the data manager and to detect one or more financialplanning trends based on the monitored activity.
 38. The system of claim37, wherein the one or more financial planning trends includes a clientbehavior trend, a financial planner performance trend, a financialplanning product trend, or any combination thereof.
 39. The system ofclaim 24, wherein the data manager is part of a financial planningsoftware service.
 40. The system of claim 39, wherein the financialplanning software service is accessible by a plurality of financialplanners and a plurality of applications.
 41. A system comprising: adata manager accessible by a plurality of applications, wherein the datamanager is configured to store financial planning goals and financialplanning recommendations for a plurality of financial planning clientsto a database; a financial planning application configured to access thedata manager and to create a financial planning goal and associate oneor more financial planning recommendations with the financial planninggoal; a document developer application configured to access the datamanager and to: modify a goal status of an existing financial planninggoal; and modify a recommendation status of an existing financialplanning recommendation; generate a financial planning document for aparticular financial planning client based on financial planning goalsand financial planning recommendations associated with the particularfinancial planning client; and store the generated financial planningdocument at a file manager; an interface infrastructure configured tosupport a plurality of interfaces, including: a first interface thatcomprises a display of financial planning goals and financial planningrecommendations associated with each financial planning client served bya particular financial planner; a second interface that comprises adisplay of financial planning goals and financial planningrecommendations associated with a financial planning client; and a datamining module configured to monitor the data manager, to detect one ormore trends based on the monitoring, and to identify one or moreproducts based on the one or more trends.
 42. The system of claim 41,wherein the interface infrastructure is further configured to support athird interface that is useable by a financial planning client to inputinformation related to financial planning goals and financial planningrecommendations associated with the financial planning client.